Provided by: libcoin80-doc_3.1.4~abc9f50-4ubuntu2_all 
NAME
SoLevelOfDetail -
The SoLevelOfDetail class is used to choose a child based on projected size.
A level-of-detail mechanism is typically used by application programmers to assist the library in
speeding up the rendering.
SYNOPSIS
#include <Inventor/nodes/SoLevelOfDetail.h>
Inherits SoGroup.
Public Member Functions
virtual SoType getTypeId (void) const
Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase. This is used for
run-time type checking and 'downward' casting.
SoLevelOfDetail (void)
SoLevelOfDetail (int numchildren)
virtual void doAction (SoAction *action)
virtual void callback (SoCallbackAction *action)
virtual void GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action)
virtual void rayPick (SoRayPickAction *action)
virtual void getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action)
virtual void audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action)
virtual void notify (SoNotList *nl)
Static Public Member Functions
static SoType getClassTypeId (void)
static void initClass (void)
Public Attributes
SoMFFloat screenArea
Protected Member Functions
virtual const SoFieldData * getFieldData (void) const
virtual ~SoLevelOfDetail ()
Static Protected Member Functions
static const SoFieldData ** getFieldDataPtr (void)
Additional Inherited Members
Detailed Description
The SoLevelOfDetail class is used to choose a child based on projected size.
A level-of-detail mechanism is typically used by application programmers to assist the library in
speeding up the rendering.
The way a level-of-detail mechanism works is basically like this:
Several versions of varying complexity of the same geometry / shape is provided by the application
programmer in sorted order from 'most complex' to 'least complex' (where 'complex' in this context should
be taken to mean more or less detailed in the number of polygons / shapes used for rendering it).
The run-time rendering system then, upon scenegraph traversal, will on-the-fly calculate either the
distance from the camera to the 3D-model in question, or the number of pixels in the screen projection of
the 3D-model. This value is then used to decide which version of the model to actually render: as the
model is moved farther away from the camera, a less detailed version of the model is used. And vice
versa, as the model moves closer to the camera, more and more detailed versions of it are rendered.
This is under many different circumstances a very effective way to let the application programmer assist
to profoundly optimize the rendering of her 3D-scene.
There is of course a trade-off with the level-of-detail technique: more versions of the same 3D model
means the scenegraph will use up more application memory resources. Also, generating the set of less and
less detailed versions of a 3D model from the original is often not a trivial task to do properly. The
process is often assisted by software like what Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies offers in their <a
href="http://www.rational-reducer.com>Rational Reducer package.
The SoLevelOfDetail node implements the 'projected size' variety level-of-detail technique (as opposed to
the 'object distance' technique, as done by the SoLOD node).
The node works by comparing the current projected size of the smallest rectangle covering the bounding
box of it's child geometry.
Along with this set of models of the same shape, a specification of when to switch between them is also
provided.
Example scenegraph layout:
LevelOfDetail {
screenArea [ 2000, 500, 50 ]
DEF version-0 Separator {
# most complex / detailed / heavy version of subgraph
}
DEF version-1 Separator {
# less complex version of subgraph
}
DEF version-2 Separator {
# even less complex version of subgraph
}
DEF version-3 Separator {
# simplest / "lightest" version of subgraph
}
}
The way the above sub-scenegraph would work would be the following: if the rectangular area around the
model's projected bounding box covers more than 2000 pixels (meaning it will be up pretty close to the
camera), the most complex version of the model (version-0) would be traversed (and rendered, of course).
If the projected area would be between 500 and 2000 pixels, the version-1 model would be used. Ditto if
the projected area was between 50 and 500 pixels, the version-2 version of the model would be used.
Finally, if the projected bounding box area would be less than 50 square pixels, the presumably least
detailed version of the modeled would be used.
(A common 'trick' is to let the last of the SoLevelOfDetail node's children be just an empty subgraph, so
no geometry will be rendered at all if the model is sufficiently far away. This will of course have a
positive effect on the total rendering time for the complete scenegraph.)
Note that the SoLevelOfDetail::screenArea vector will be influenced by preceding SoComplexity nodes in
the following way: if SoComplexity::value is set from 0.0 up to 0.5, lower detail levels than normal will
be selected for traversal. If SoComplexity::value is above 0.5, higher level details than normal will be
used. An SoComplexity::value equal to 1.0 will cause the first child of SoLevelOfDetail to always be
used.
As mentioned above, there is one other level-of-detail node in the Coin library: SoLOD. The difference
between that one and this is just that instead of projected bounding box area, SoLOD uses the distance
between the camera and the object to find out when to switch between the different model versions.
Using SoLOD is faster, since figuring out the projected bounding box area needs a certain amount of
calculations. But using SoLevelOfDetail is often 'better', in the sense that it's really a model's size
and visibility in the viewport that determines whether we could switch to a less complex version without
losing enough detail that it gives a noticable visual degradation.
FILE FORMAT/DEFAULTS:
LevelOfDetail {
screenArea 0
}
See Also:
SoLOD
Constructor & Destructor Documentation
SoLevelOfDetail::SoLevelOfDetail (void)
Default constructor.
SoLevelOfDetail::SoLevelOfDetail (intnumchildren)
Constructor.
The argument should be the approximate number of children which is expected to be inserted below this
node. The number need not be exact, as it is only used as a hint for better memory resource allocation.
SoLevelOfDetail::~SoLevelOfDetail () [protected], [virtual]
Destructor.
Member Function Documentation
SoType SoLevelOfDetail::getTypeId (void) const [virtual]
Returns the type identification of an object derived from a class inheriting SoBase. This is used for
run-time type checking and 'downward' casting. Usage example:
void foo(SoNode * node)
{
if (node->getTypeId() == SoFile::getClassTypeId()) {
SoFile * filenode = (SoFile *)node; // safe downward cast, knows the type
}
}
For application programmers wanting to extend the library with new nodes, engines, nodekits, draggers or
others: this method needs to be overridden in all subclasses. This is typically done as part of setting
up the full type system for extension classes, which is usually accomplished by using the pre-defined
macros available through for instance Inventor/nodes/SoSubNode.h (SO_NODE_INIT_CLASS and
SO_NODE_CONSTRUCTOR for node classes), Inventor/engines/SoSubEngine.h (for engine classes) and so on.
For more information on writing Coin extensions, see the class documentation of the toplevel superclasses
for the various class groups.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
const SoFieldData * SoLevelOfDetail::getFieldData (void) const [protected], [virtual]
Returns a pointer to the class-wide field data storage object for this instance. If no fields are
present, returns NULL.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::doAction (SoAction *action) [virtual]
This function performs the typical operation of a node for any action.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::callback (SoCallbackAction *action) [virtual]
Action method for SoCallbackAction.
Simply updates the state according to how the node behaves for the render action, so the application
programmer can use the SoCallbackAction for extracting information about the scene graph.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::GLRender (SoGLRenderAction *action) [virtual]
Action method for the SoGLRenderAction.
This is called during rendering traversals. Nodes influencing the rendering state in any way or who wants
to throw geometry primitives at OpenGL overrides this method.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::rayPick (SoRayPickAction *action) [virtual]
Action method for SoRayPickAction.
Checks the ray specification of the action and tests for intersection with the data of the node.
Nodes influencing relevant state variables for how picking is done also overrides this method.
Reimplemented from SoNode.
void SoLevelOfDetail::getBoundingBox (SoGetBoundingBoxAction *action) [virtual]
Action method for the SoGetBoundingBoxAction.
Calculates bounding box and center coordinates for node and modifies the values of the action to
encompass the bounding box for this node and to shift the center point for the scene more towards the one
for this node.
Nodes influencing how geometry nodes calculates their bounding box also overrides this method to change
the relevant state variables.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::audioRender (SoAudioRenderAction *action) [virtual]
Action method for SoAudioRenderAction.
Does common processing for SoAudioRenderAction action instances.
Reimplemented from SoGroup.
void SoLevelOfDetail::notify (SoNotList *l) [virtual]
Notifies all auditors for this instance when changes are made.
Reimplemented from SoNode.
Member Data Documentation
SoMFFloat SoLevelOfDetail::screenArea
The screen area limits for the children. See usage example in main class documentation of SoLevelOfDetail
for an explanation of how this vector should be set up correctly.
By default this vector just contains a single value 0.0f.
Author
Generated automatically by Doxygen for Coin from the source code.
Version 4.0.0a Wed Feb 26 2014 SoLevelOfDetail(3)